


Life Experiences

by ranereins (shadowintime)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-08
Updated: 2012-02-08
Packaged: 2017-10-30 19:20:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/335192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowintime/pseuds/ranereins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jeannie believes that Rodney needs to get out more, so she drags him to a hockey game. When he wakes up the next morning, he realizes that he doesn't remember what happened the night before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Experiences

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Big Bang challenge @ fandomverse on LJ. I wanted to do something funny and maybe a bit silly, so I decided to use texts from [Texts From Last Night](http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/) as prompts; this one was 'Woke up wearing a Canadian flag with the starting forward of the hockey team. I feel oddly patriotic.' Beta'd by sgflutegirl

As Rodney slowly began to wake, he registered two things. One, his head was throbbing and the light, wherever it was coming from, felt like daggers stabbing through his eyelids; and two, his back was killing him, meaning that he wasn’t sleeping in his bed, on the mattress his doctor had specially prescribed for his back. So where was he? And why did the silence sound as though it was screaming at him?

Beer. He vaguely recalled drinking beer. That was why the silence was too loud and the light cut through his eyes… he had a hangover! Why was he drinking beer, especially so much that he was hungover? He didn’t even like beer. Oh, wait, he was drinking with someone. Wasn’t he? He thought he remembered drinking with some guy, but that couldn’t be right… he wasn’t the type of guy people asked to get a drink with them.

 _‘Okay, stop. Go back to the beginning,’_ he told himself. Where had he been the night before? Oh right, the hockey game. He didn’t really get the point of hockey, but his sister had dragged him with her.

 

_“You need to get out more, Meredith.”_

_“I’m perfectly fine right where I am Jeannie,” Rodney told her, rolling his eyes. “Besides, I’m working on some very promising research into wormhole…”_

_“That’s very interesting Mer, and it will be just as interesting tomorrow. Tonight, you are going with me to this hockey game.”_

_“I don’t even like hockey.”_

_“Doesn’t matter.”_

_Rodney groaned, but grabbed his coat and allowed his sister to drag him away._

 

Hockey game. He remembered sitting in the stands with Jeannie, it was loud, he bought them both hotdogs and hot coco, he was bored and after what felt like an eternity, the game finally ended. Then what? 

 

_“Can we go now?” Rodney asked, whining a little._

_“Not quite yet,” Jeannie said as they made their way down the stairs._

_“Why not? The game is over.”_

_“Because I’m waiting on some people and then we’re going to go to a victory party.”_

_“Why do I have to wait for these people?”_

_“Because I’m your ride.”_

_“I’ll take a cab.”_

_“No.”_

_“No? What do you mean no? I can take a cab home if I want!”_

_“You’re not going home; you’re coming to the party with me Mer.”_

_“Please stop calling me Mer in public… it’s Rodney, and I don’t want to go to a party. I’m not a party person.”_

_“Oh, I know,” Jeannie said with a chuckle._

_Rodney sighed, exasperated. “Then why do you want to drag me to some party? And by the way, if this was a preplanned party, it wasn’t very prudent of them to plan a victory party when they didn’t know for sure that they were going to win. What if they had lost, huh? Would have really sucked going to a victory party after they’d lost.”_

_“To answer your first question, because if I don’t take you places, you’d never go anywhere or meet anyone! Is that what you really want, to eventually die alone in that apartment of yours and me to find you with your cat eating you because it’s been a week since he’s been fed?!”_

_Rodney could feel himself shrinking under his sister’s angry gaze. “He wouldn’t eat me… would he?”_

_“Yes, he would. Because a starving cat sees no loyalty or compassion. He only sees a large chunk of dead meat.”_

 

With that horrible mental image, they waited. Eventually the people that Jeannie had been waiting on came and they had packed into two cars.

So, he had gone to the party. That must have been where he’d had the beers with the guy he vaguely remembered. He remembered the guy coming up to him, saying “Hey” and handing him a cup. The guy had black hair that looked messy and styled all at the same time and a smile that made you instantly trust him. Popular, obviously. People kept coming over to talk to the guy, but the guy still didn’t abandon him, which seemed odd to Rodney as people normally abandoned him quickly. Name, what was his name. John? No, maybe not. Seemed too generic and Rodney was never good at remembering names.

In any case, from there it was a blur, he couldn’t remember anything else. He was probably on his couch, or Jeannie’s more likely. She’d probably drove him home and helped him inside. At least she couldn’t say he didn’t have any life experiences anymore… he’d gone to a sporting event and a party, he’d talked to someone over beers and had a hangover… that was more than enough ‘life experience’ for a long while. Been there, done that, whatever.

After a few moments of debating whether to go ahead and get up or stay there for a little while longer and hope his hangover symptoms would ease, Rodney finally slowly opened his eyes. He stared up at the ceiling; it definitely wasn’t his and unless Jeannie had redecorated and hung posters of jets and hockey players on her ceiling, it wasn’t hers either. Add to the life experiences ‘woke up not knowing where you were’. Was he still at the house where the party had taken place?

He wasn’t sure what made him notice it, but the next thing that he realized was that he naked… well, not exactly completely naked. He was wrapped in the Canadian flag.

“What the hell?” Rodney said.

The sound of a deep breath being taken came from beside him, followed by “Morning.”

Rodney slowly craned his head to the left. Lying beside him, naked except for a thin sheet that left little to the imagination, was the guy he remembered talking to. The popular one. The one with the perfectly messed up hair who didn’t abandon him. Rodney felt the blood drain from his face as he realized that, above all, he was the guy he couldn’t remember what his name was.

Rodney forced a smile; he could feel his lip and cheek twitching as he squeaked “Morning.”

The guy tucked his left hand behind his head and stared at Rodney with a lazy smirk. “You look freaked out.”

“Probably because I am… a little.” Oh great, now his eye had joined in the twitching. He really hoped it wasn’t noticeable. “I… uh… I don’t really remember much about last night.”

“That’s a shame. I can refresh your memory, if you like.”

Was he offering what Rodney thought he was offering? Teasing him maybe? Was this all some sort of elaborate joke?

Apparently the guy took Rodney’s silence as an unsaid yes, because he sat up and pressed his lips against Rodney’s.

“Tempting as the offer is, I should really be going,” Rodney said quietly as soon the guy broke the kiss.

He smiled. “Okay.”

“Where are my clothes?”

“Living room, I think.”

Rodney nodded and crawled off of the bed, making his way to the living room and quickly dressing. As he was pulling on his shirt, the guy casually walked past him to the kitchen area, wearing only a pair of boxer briefs.

“You sure you don’t want to stay for breakfast? My pancakes are really good.”

“No, I’m fine.” Hand on the door knob, Rodney stopped at looked back at the man. “Look, I’m really sorry, but I don’t remember your name.”

He smiled. “John, John Sheppard.”

“Sheppard… that sounds familiar.”

“You probably heard it a lot last night.”

Rodney arched a brow, surprised by his apparent cockiness.

“Over the loudspeaker, at the game last night,” John clarified. “I’m the starting forward for the home team.”

“Oh,” was all Rodney could manage as means of a response. “Well, bye.”

“Bye.”

He opened the door and left. As he walked down the hall, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and realized that he had twelve text messages, all of them from Jeannie. She was worried, if the string of variations on ‘where are you?!?’ was any indication.

‘I’m fine,’ he typed. His finger hovered over send for a moment before he added, ‘I think I like hockey. Going for pancakes with lots of maple syrup.’

When he got downstairs, he looked around for any indication as to where he was. It took him a moment, but he realized that he was already on his street, outside his apartment building. Frowning, he made his way back up to his apartment to shower and change. As he fumbled with his keys outside his door, the neighbor three doors down emerged, locking their door behind them.

Rodney instinctively glanced over as he slid the proper key into the lock. He did a double take.

“Hey,” John said as he passed Rodney, smiling broadly. “Guess we’re neighbors.”


End file.
